"no one's doomed. you just need a little ...  confidence." or a lot, considering her nihilistic way of talking about her love life. aaron notices the way she squints at him as he describes the scenario, but he brushes it off. he knows she's put off by this whole conversation, but he's already too committed to being her love coach to check in on her. 
[break][break]
"right!" he praises, as if the given scenario hadn't pigeonholed her into that answer. "exactly, you'd say hello. now, uh, pretend i'm that guy."
[break][break]
he turns his body towards her, swinging a leg over the log to straddle it. the movement inadvertently knocks his pikachu out of her seat and she lets out a sad chirp as she stands over her sad, sandy hot dog. 
[break][break]
"hey, what's your name?" aaron asks in-character, leaning in a little. once she introduces herself, he offers another question: "you come to parties often?"
[break][break]

+ Alice Godfrey

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Victor Wexler had turned out to be a pretty decent guy. after a week of almost dying of exposure on a deserted island together, one could say aaron feels like he formed a bond with the pink-haired dude. not, like, a bond bond because no homo, of course — but aaron could place him confidently on his small list of friends. 
[break][break]
which is why they're here. just a couple of bros heading to a local daycare to get some snow cones. it's not a date, though, even though aaron hopes (heterosexually) vic will find it in his chivalrous heart to pay for his snow cone. aaron reaches for the door first, fingers curling around the handle, and opens it to reveal the disaster within.
[break][break]
"uhhh?" he pauses in the doorway, blinking at the girl struggling with a bag of ice cubes. the realization that he should be helping her comes slowly, but he looks back at vic and mumbles, "i got this, bro" which is just code for: i think this girl is cute so please just stand here and be my wingman.
[break][break]

"hey, here—" he crosses the floor and reaches for the bag — whether to help her hold it or hold it for her. "let me help you with this."
[break][break]

+ girl pog avery jones

aaron isn't sure he can trust vic's tropius meat intuition one hundred percent, but it is comforting to be reassured that he won't be shitting himself for the next seven days. he takes another bite and paws at the rogue streams of berry juice that trickle down his chin. he polishes it off as vic takes the lead, suggesting they collect what they can carry.[break][break]
"man, i wish i had my bag with me," he laments, mostly to himself, as he crawls around the jungle floor in search of fallen fruit. he gathers as much as he can hold in his arms and awkwardly gets to his feet, dropping a couple in the graceless process.
[break][break]
"right." he shifts restlessly. "i hope he found something." he feels a tug on his pantleg and sees his furret trying to get his attention. "we have plenty of food now," aaron tells her gently, but she persists. he's not really the best at reading his pokemon, so he offers her a berry. she takes it but doesn't eat it, her eyes still fixed on her trainer.[break][break]

—[break][break]

despite their collective incompetence, aaron and vic manage to survive a week on a deserted island with nothing but their pokemon and each other. they get to know each other a little too well, but in a no homo, just two dudes hanging out kind of way. aaron's screentime goes up 1000% when he returns to civilization.[break][break]

+ deserted island 4 Victor Wexler

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

aaron levels his own glare to match greyson's accusing stare, bristling at his irritated tone. the audacity of the push, regardless of how light, has him reconsidering his earlier decision not to put his hands on this guy. if there isn't a ghost haunting this place, he's about two seconds away from volunteering greyson for the role. 
[break][break]
"i didn't do shit, you dumbfuck," he bites back. "did you forget that this is a haunted house? a ghost is fucking with us, obviously!" he doesn't get the chance to get up in his face, his anger withering at the sound of loud footsteps overhead. he shines his flashlight at the ceiling hesitantly.
[break][break]
little clouds of dust rain down with each heavy step, revealing the ambling path whoever is upstairs is taking. "there's someone upstairs," he whispers urgently, a lingering trace of annoyance in his voice. "go fuck 'em up or something."
[break][break]

+ you're not the one 4 Greyson Connors

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

aaron never misses an opportunity for free food, even if he's toeing the line of malnutrition by stuffing his face with ice cream. when @giselle (her name is giselle, he had found out, after internally referring to her as the crazy chick who throws rocks at pissed off gods) invited him to her ice cream party, he hadn't expected there to be so many kids. well, kids love ice cream, he supposes, but isn't this to celebrate their miraculous volcano survival? 
[break][break]
it doesn't occur to him that they might've been there.
[break][break]
"hey guys," he greets blithely, the spoon in his mouth clacking against his molars as he slithers into the nearest unoccupied chair. he cradles his bowl of ice cream with uncharacteristic tenderness, like it was a newborn baby and not a monstrous mixture of probably every ice cream giselle has to offer. "that was pretty fucked up what happened on mt. chimney, huh?" he pops a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. 
[break][break]
then, he looks sidelong at the group of impressionable young faces (Hideo Kino ,  Eris Halla ,  Andy Blackadder in particular) and almost chokes. "oh shit — oh fu— ah, i mean — sorry —" maybe he is choking a little bit, the way he coughs out the words. "don't repeat anything i just said, okay?"
[break][break]
he doesn't realize the kid who looks like he was wheeled out of the hospital five minutes ago has been utilizing a colorful vocabulary before aaron even pulled up to this function.
[break][break]

+ ice cream pog

holy guacamole, who could've guessed that this would end in a 1 v 1 between groudon and some random pokemon? aaron watches in useless awe as the battle rages, only snapping to attention once lava wells up to the lip of the volcano and spills over.
[break][break]
"shit, shit, shit," he takes a stumbling step backwards, then another, wondering if he could outrun the lava creeping towards him. what a terrible time to be up shit's creek without a flying-type. just as he recalls his pokemon (well, the two that haven't abandoned him yet) and prepares to sprint, a hand grabs him and pulls him onto — a rock?!
[break][break]
he lets out a startled yell as they ride the rock down the mountain, @giselle screaming in his ear. it takes her lips pressed against his cheek for him to finally get a grip. "bro, did you just—?" he lets the question go. "never mind — uh, listen, um, do — do you have control of this thing?" 
[break][break]
he probably shouldn't expect well-thought out ideas from the same girl who thought throwing rocks at groudon is a good and sane choice, but he couldn't help but cling onto hope that they're not going to end up as a smear on the back of lavaridge town's pokecenter.
[break][break]

+ tldr: aaron recalls his pokemon except gligar and joins @giselle on her rock riding adventure. he gets a kiss 😳 even though he contributed nothing 

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

the psychic takes him to the ground like a ton of bricks, but its the sting in his arm that demands his attention. "wha—" he doesn't even have time to twist his head to examine the injury before his braixen is using her PSYCHIC hold to manipulate him back onto his feet with a nauseating swiftness. he finds his legs and follows the rest of the group up toward the peak. 
[break][break]
something warm and wet has been trickling down his arm, but now even that seems insignificant as the group gets front row seats to the trials and tribulations of other, more productive groups.
[break][break]
"oh fuck," he reaches for his belt and catches a glimpse of the red stains on his arm where bloody rivulets had wandered and, apparently, dried up in the heat. his nidorina disappears in a flash of light, replaced by the terribly new addition to his team, gligar. surely having a flying-type will —
[break][break]
as aaron opens his mouth to order her to do something, the gligar flies off unceremoniously. she uses ACROBATICS to reach top speed as she zips away from her dumbfounded new trainer to intercept her old trainer. she stretches her claws out for Victor Wexler  as he falls, hoping to find purchase on him. 
[break][break]
— give him an advantage...? the chaos around him gives him little time to digest what just happened. he struggles to keep his footing as earthquake after earthquake makes the ground shiver beneath him. the sun overhead grows oppressively large, forcing him to avert his eyes towards the ground. 
[break][break]
a roar heralds the eruption of a bunch of those gondola-destroying pillars. when the cable car group doesn't immediately die, aaron strains to look up and sees attacks flying towards other precipice blades around the volcano. is that, like, a good idea? what if the attacks make them explode? 
[break][break]
we don't really have any other options, he thinks, realizing @giselle 's chewtle is no longer around to be their saving grace. "ellie, use hydro pump on that rock!" his feraligatr puts herself squarely between her trainer and the precipice blade and unleashes a HYDRO PUMP on it.
[break][break]

+ tldr: braixen uses her psychic to get aaron back on his feet. aaron replaces nidorina with his gligar. she uses acrobatics to zip over to Victor Wexler and try and stop him from falling into groudon's bathtub. his feraligatr uses hydro pump on the nearest precipice blade. [break]
light screen (5/5)

[attr="class","pokeclass"]